From the very first email sent by researchers in Switzerland in 1971, to modern sites like Google+ and Pinterest, the Internet, and the valuable content it distributes, have alwaysbeen social.

The very purpose of the Internet (every blog, website and virtual gathering place within it) is to let people connect, communicate, and collaborate.

So the concept behind Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking tools isn’t new. These sites just give us new, sexy, and easy-to use ways to do what we’ve always wanted to do online — exchange ideas and information.

The Internet has always been social, and it always will be. Still not convinced?

Here’s a handy timeline that might dispel any further historical myths about the true nature of the Internet, and where we’re all going with it, together …

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Recently, Facebook has been releasing its latest news and features for Facebook Pages in silence. Some of them are still in the testing process but at least you will discover what your brand should get ready for!

1. Switch Between Global And Local Pages

If you are a global brand managing loocal Facebook Pages across several countries, you will definitely appreciate what´s in store for you. You and your Fans will be able to switch between global and local Pages thanks to the „Switch Region“ option under the cover photo. Currently it´s being tested but you can check it out exclusively on the Facebook Marketing Page. The global Page and all its local Pages shouldshare the same number of Likes (Fans), only the People Talking About number should vary from Page to Page.

In the future, Fans should also get automatically navigated to their local Page according to their current location. These steps just demonstrate the importance of local Pages which have proven to be more engaging than global pages on Facebook. Become more audience-oriented while keeping the “big picture”!

2. Manage Your Page With Your iPhone

The Page Manager is an application that lets admins check on their Page activity, access insights and respond to their audience from an iPhone or iPad. After downloading the main Facebook app and installing the Page Manager on your mobile device, you will be able to post status updates and photos, respond to comments and access Page content and insights directly from your phone! The only thing that is really missing are the messages, but they should be available in the future.

The main advantage is that you will receive notifications about people interacting with your Page directly to your mobile device! From now on, you will have your Page under control at all times and you will be able to increase your Engagement Rate as well as your Response Rate!

The available insights on Page Manager include: Total Likes, People Talking About, Total Reach and a Trends chart.

3. Find Out Who Is Listening

Did you ever wonder what percentage of your Fan base has actually seen your post? Of course you have, which is why Facebook decided to introduce percentage links to posts on your brand pages. But that is not the only reason. Facebook wants to support the launch of its Promoted Posts straight from the Timeline and it believes that by providing admins with information on the percentage of reached Fans, it should be easier to convince them to promote their posts.

Facebook says that brand posts reach on average 16% of the Fan base and that the Reach Generator guarantees to reach an astonishing 75% in just one month!

This feature is probably available only to some members of the advertising programs at the moment.

4. Create a Timeline Video For Your Brand

In January this year, Facebook introduced its official Timeline Movie Makerapplication which could transform a personal profile into a short and impressive video worth sharing with friends. From now on, even Facebook Pages can share their brand´s history and values with their Fans via video! This new feature embraces the importance of visual communication for brands on Facebook which is why it can be used only if you have enough photos. Then all you have to do is to choose the music and special effects that will help you deliver your message to your Fans. The application automatically selects the photos but you can edit the video and remove the ones you don’t find suitable.

Will your video express your brand´s history or will you focus on emotions and values that define your brand?

[Source: SocialBakers]

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Social media is an ever changing thing in this world – social sites rise and social sites fall. Social sites are where people find out the latest news, gossip, and updates on our friends, family, bands, companies, and everyone else out there. It seems that social media is in everything we do these days. Since it is becoming such a big part of our lives, we should keep up with them and how they are shifting. This infographic presented by The SEO Company highlights the biggest changes in social media for 2012.

Let’s start with the current king of social networks that has millions of users: Facebook. In January 2012, Facebook integrated the timeline into their user profiles. In March, they launched Messenger for Windows that let Windows 7 users’message on face and receive posts without dealing with a browser. They bought Instagram – one of the biggest photo apps – for $1 billion. This is the most anyone has ever spent on an app. Then, Facebook opened their IPO at $38/share which was one of the most-hyped stock offerings in history. Later, it became the most disappointing social media investment that was produced in 2012. If you look at the numbers, there is no slow down for Facebook at this time.

Anonymous group was a big social entity in 2012. The Anonymous group is most famous for their attacks on SOPA supporters in January. This was their largest attack with over 5,635 participants. Many were identified by their IP address and later arrested. Anonymous has had many attacks for different causes and this has brought people’s attention to them as an Influential person. In fact, Times Magazine named them the most Influential person of today.

The Kony 2012 video was on YouTube which caught everyone by storm in March. It was one of the biggest overnight videos of this year. The video is about “invisible children”or children soldiers in Uganda. Many got mad at the video because Uganda was not currently at war. It does show you how powerful social media like YouTube is in today’s world. After the video was released, Kony 2012 discussions were on prime television after only being on YouTube for a couple of weeks. They recently released a follow-up video and received 500,000 views within a week.

Even the giant, Google, has thrown their hat into the social media ring of making their own social media site. In fact, President Obama used G+ Hangouts to perform the first all-virtual interview with U.S citizens. However, G+ has not been keeping up with the rest of them. For example, in April Google shut down their popular photo editing site: Picnik.

In January, Pinterest was named Best New Startup of 2011 and referred more business than Linkedin, YouTube, and Google+. Who would have thought a site that requires an invite could do better than ones that do not. Pinterest, if you haven’t heard, is basically a virtual pinboard. You can pin pictures to different boards you have created and keep all of your ideas and inspiration in one place. Pinterest is the newcomer of social media sites – a title that Facebook once held.

Social Media is more than a trend, it is a huge power in the world of 2012 and it keeps growing. It is hard to look at the future of social media and predict the next new trend that will take the world by storm. The future of social media can even be seen through the social apps banking. It continues to grow in the mobile world and the SoCoMo (Social Media Cloud) will be unstoppable. These future trends are coming down the line and will ultimately change how we do business.

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Via Scoop.it – Digital MediaFacebook’s new brand timeline format offers a neat opportunity for marketers, until you read the policies governing cover photos set by the network. — From Facebook’s FAQs about Cover Photos:
Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:
Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
References to user interface elements such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”Via www.socialmediaexplorer.com